The Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting laboratory known as J-RAUM, a research and innovation hub for automotive lighting applications, was inaugurated today at the Agemont Centre for Technological Innovation in Amaro (Udine). The President of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, Renzo Tondo, the C.E.O. of Magneti Marelli, Eugenio Razelli, the President of Agemont, Roberto Venturini, and the Rectors of the universities of Udine and Trieste, Cristiana Compagno and Francesco Peroni, attended the inauguration ceremony.

J-RAUM (Joint Research Area University Marelli) is a model of cooperation between industry and that academic world that Magneti Marelli has already successfully implemented at the Bologna and Venaria (TO) plants, and which results from the belief that cooperation between universities and the industrial world is crucial for the development of competitive solutions for mobility and the automotive market. The aim is to confine the cooperation between company and university to a specific physical place where to create innovation, while training a new generation of automotive technicians. The J-RAUM project involves students, including final-year students and newly-graduates, in various ways, for example through theses, internships and apprenticeships, and through the granting of bursaries and research grants.

In fact, two partnerships were signed with the University of Udine and of Trieste during the J-RAUM inauguration. Along with Automotive Lighting and Agemont, these universities will play a significant role in this technological transfer, training and teaching activity.

The students (those writing their theses and grant recipients) and research associates, will be given the chance to work side by side with Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting technicians and University professors on industrial issues, and to effectively prepare themselves for the professional world. Magneti Marelli, on the other hand, has the opportunity to attract young talented people with whom to develop innovative projects aimed at identifying new technological solutions and new business opportunities.

The J-RAUM at the Tolmezzo plant is intended to satisfy research needs on the topics of Electronics, Optics and Moulding, also thanks to the significant contribution, in terms of tutorship, of the CRP (Plast-Optic Research Centre). The CRP is the result of the cooperation between Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting and Agemont, and has already proven itself to be an important example of successful local cooperation.

JRAUM is located within the Centre for Technological Innovation (C.I.T.) of Agemont (L’Agenzia per lo Sviluppo Economico della Montagna del Friuli Venezia Giulia - Agency for Economic Development of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Mountain area), and specifically in the town of Amaro (UD). It is a technological hub with many innovative production facilities and research laboratories, capable of promoting constant interaction between the system of small and medium-size companies and the world of research and of the universities. In this logic, the C.I.T. represents a veritable reference point for the growth of small and medium-sized companies, and carries out a dual function as both a Laboratory System and a Business Accelerator.

The Amaro-based JRAUM results from the initiative of Automotive Lighting – a subsidiary of Magneti Marelli operating in four continents, among global leaders in the automotive lighting sector – to invest in local skills, offering a training experience with possible spin-offs at the global level.

Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting has a significant industrial presence in Italy’s Friuli Venezia Giulia region through the Tolmezzo (UD) plant, which employs 800 workers and supplies rear lights to leading global carmakers, with a special focus, due to its geographical location, on high technology lamps for premium manufacturers in the German region.

“In order to satisfy the growing needs of leading global carmakers – said Eugenio Razelli during the J-RAUM inauguration – we always have to be able to provide technologically advanced solutions and products and to count on a constant innovation process. This means that it is important to have research and innovation facilities that bring together enterprise and university in this geographical area, which is traditionally rich in top-level technical and scientific skills, and is logistically close to our major customers in Germany. In these dynamics, which create innovation in order to sustain an advanced industrial context, the backing of local institutions is also of crucial importance”.

“This is the positive evolution of a relationship, the one between Agemont and the CRP (Plast-Optic Research Centre), that has been yielding benefits for many years now – stated Roberto Venturini, President of Agemont. Adding to the status quo, which is already an interface between the world of research and enterprise, and an “incubator” for young technicians, further improves its effectiveness. This project, which originates from the will of a leading industrial group, will allow us to grow even further, while offering many youngsters who live in the mountain area the chance to grow professionally, for a brighter future. All this would not have been possible if we had not worked well to create the necessary conditions so that it could in fact become a reality. During these dire economic times, an initiative such as this is one of the best answers that the worlds of enterprise, research and institutions can provide. The positive fallout for youngsters will certainly be immediate and, I hope, significant”.